Magnetic follower



Feb- 22, 1955 H. w. REGENHARDT ET A1. 2,702,553

MAGNETIC FoLLowER Filed Feb. 16, 1952 United States Patent O MAGNETICFOLLOWER Haus W. Regeuhardt and Frank R. Wells, Wooster, Ohio,

assiguors to Record Files, Inc., Wooster, Ohio, a corporation of OhioApplication February 16, 1952, Serial No. 271,914

4 Claims. (Cl. 129-28) This invention relates to a follower for use inthe drawer of a tiling cabinet or the like and, more particularly, to afollower adapted to grip the bottom of the drawer.

In a follower for a filing cabinet drawer, it is desirable to providemeans precluding or at least minimizing the likelihood of displacementof the follower due to the action of the rearwardly directed forces thatare imposed on the follower by the contents of the drawer. Accordingly,most followers other than those of the very simplest construction areprovided with mechanical means of some sort whereby they may be manuallylocked in the desired position. This, however, makes for difficultieswhen it becomes necessary to relocate the follower in the drawer, as,for example, when it is desired to move the follower to the rear to makeroom for additional material. In such case, the follower must bemanually unlocked, moved axially of the drawer, and, when the newposition has been attained, again manually locked in position. Tosimplify this time-consuming series of operations is one of the objectsof the present invention.

Another object of the invention is to provide a magnetically heldfollower such that although ordinary rearwardly acting forces imposedupon it by the contents of the drawer will not displace it, the followermay nevertheless be dislodged manually by a simple upward pull. Afurther object is to provide a magnetically held follower provided withmeans which act to preclude substantial displacement of the followerunder the inlluence of rearwardly acting forces of abnormally greatmagnitude. Still a further object of the invention is to providecooperating means of this kind that do not come into operation untilneeded and, in the meanwhile, do not interfere with relocation of thefollower. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparentfrom the description which follows and from the accompanying drawings.

In such drawings, Figure l is a longitudinal vertical central sectionthrough a drawer provided with a follower of the kind to which theinvention relates, such drawer being of steel or other magnetic metal orat least having a suitable metallic bottom portion. Figure 2 is anelevation with parts in section seen as if from line 2-2 of Figure l.Figure 3 is an upward-looking perspective of the follower of Figures land 2 in a reversed position; that is to say, as seen from a point belowand forward of the face of the follower that normally comes into contactwith the contents of the drawer, such perspective showing theconstruction of those parts of the follower that immediately overlie thebottom portion of the drawer.

The front end of the drawer, which is of conventional construction,appears Figure 1, wherein it is designated 1. It includes rearwardlyturned flanges 1a and 1b and an oppositely facing plate 1c. Cooperatingwith front end 1 and with a rear end of any suitable type (not shown)are two side walls 2 and 3, likewise of conventional construction. Sidewalls 2 and 3 are provided with guide anges 2a and 3a, respectively.Formed integrally with side walls 2 and 3 is bottom portion 4, on whichthe follower seats and to which it is held as hereinafter explained.While it is desirable that bottom portion 4 be integral with side walls2 and 3, the latter may, if desired, be of a non-magnetic material suchas wood to which magnetic bottom portion 4 is rmly attached in someconvenient manner.

lee y Formed in bottom portion 4 is an axially extending rack 5 (Figures1 and 2) which may be co-extensive with or may begin near one end andterminate near the opposite end of the drawer. Rack 5 is narrow ascompared with the width of the drawer, taking the form of a long stripthat runs lengthwise of the bottom portion 4 along the center linethereof as indicated in Figure 2. lt is convenient to form rack 5 sothat it projects downwardly as shown from bottom portion 4, but it may,if desired, be formed separately and welded, riveted or otherwisefastened to the upper face of bottom portion 4. If the latter, somecomponents of the rack need not be of metal; preferably, however, atleast serrations 6 (Figure l) are of a metal such as steel having acapacity to resist rearwardly acting forces imposed on the follower bythe contents of the drawer, such as cards 7.

The follower itself consists, in the form shown, of an upwardlyextending part 8, preferably of sheet metal, which has aforwardly-facing surface 8a that comes into contact with cards 7 and arearwardly-facing surface 8b on which is mounted the reinforcement 8cand any handle, grasping portion, or like element that it is desired toincorporate in the follower. At the base of upwardly extending part 8 isa rearwardly extending part 9, which, among other things, serves to holdupwardly extending part 8 in generally upright position; along its sidesare the rearwardly extending reinforcing flanges 10 and 11 seen inFigure 2. As seen in plan, rearwardly extending part 9 may be of anysuitable configuration; i. e., square, rectangular, triangular, or ofalmost any other desired shape. In the drawings it is shown as T-shaped,being made up of a substantially horizontal transversely extendingportion 9a (Figures 2 and 3) and a downwardly inclined rearwardlyextending portion 9b (Figures l and 3), the two being integral with eachother and with upwardly extending part 8. The included angle a betweenupwardly extending part 8 and horizontal portion 9a of rearwardlyextending part 9 will in general be a right angle, although in somecases it may be desired to have it somewhat more or somewhat less thanRearwardly extending portion 9b of part 9 is provided with a tang-likeprojection 9c that closely overlies rack 5, being held out of actualengagement with it except as hereinafter described.

Attached to the bottom of transversely extending portion 9a ofrearwardly extending part 9 of the follower is an elongated magnet 12 ofthe horse-shoe type, such magnet extending transversely of the followerfrom a point near one end to a point near the opposite end of portion9a. The bight in the magnet therefore extends at right angles to portion9b of the follower and the longitudinal axis of bottom portion 4 of thedrawer. Magnet 12 is aixed to portion 9a of rearwardly eX- tending part9 of the follower by any suitable means as, for example, by bolting orgluing it in place. Although such treatment is not necessary, the magnetmay, if desired, be covered with a fibrous flock to deaden sound andllinimize the likelihood of scratching bottom portion Between the endsof the magnet is a cut-away portion 13 of height sufficient to permitthe magnet to pass over rack 5 in bottom portion 4. The width ofcut-away portion 13 should be slightly greater than the width of rack 5.Cut-away portion 13 in effect divides magnet 12 into two half-magnets,14 and 15, one on each side of the longitudinal axis of bottom portion4. As shown in Figure 3, half-magnet 14 has two transversely extendingpoles 14a and 14b; similarly, half-magnet 15 has two transverselyextending poles 15a and 15b. Poles 14a, 14b and 15a, 15b are formed asflat surfaces that seat squarely on bottom portion 4 and, by magneticattraction, tend to grip the follower firmly in position in the drawer.

Assuming the state of affairs illustrated in Figure l, in which therearwardly acting forces imposed by cards 7 are not suiciently great todisplace the follower against the resistance provided by magnet 12, ifit is desired to relocate the follower, it is only necessary to graspupwardly extending portion 8 in one hand, lift the follower upward, moveit in the desired direction to the intended new position, and allowmagnet 12 to seat on avoaess bottom portion 4 of the drawer. By virtueof the presence of cut-away portion 13 in magnet 12, there is nointerference at any time between magnet 12 and rack 5. Both before andafter relocation, the follower is held in its normal upright positionwith tang-like projection 9c on rearwardly extending part 9 entirely outof contact with serrations 6 of rack 5.

If, however, the rearwardly acting forces imposed by cards '7 onupwardly extending part 8 of the follower momentarily become excessivelygreat, as may happen when a heavily loaded drawer is pulled forward tooquickly or when it is closed and hits the back stop, magnet 12 maybecome dislodged as a result of annular displacement of the follower ina clockwise direction as seen in Figure l. Such displacement of thefollower; i. e., tilting of the follower, is promptly followed bymechanical engagement between tana-like projection 9c on rearwardlyextending portion 9b or part 9 and the serrations 6 of rack 5, therebyprecluding any considerable amount of rearward movement of the followeras a whole. Thus these parts cooperate with each other to keep thecontents of the drawer in substantially upright position. Rearwardslipping of the follower; i. e., rectilinear movement of the followerunaccompanied by dislodgement of magnet 12, does not ordinarily comeabout in the absence of suddenly applied rearwardly acting forces of thekind above described, this for the reason that the gripping action ofmagnet 12 on bottom portion 4 ,of the drawer is suilicient to preventsuch rearward slipping.

Thus the invention provides a magnetically-held follower having partsnormally out of contact with the drawer that come into engagement withthe drawer when required to prevent substantial rearward movement of thefollower in case forces of sufficient magnitude to displace it aresuddenly imposed upon it.

Numerous departures from what has been described may readily be madewithout departing from the principle of the invention; for example, itis entirely practicable to provide two tracks S rather than one suchrack, one of them at the base of each of side walls 2 and 3. In somecircumstances, instead of a single magnet provided with one or morecut-away portions, two or more separate magnets may be employed; indeed,in a wide drawer several such magnets suitably spaced from each othermay be aligned transversely of the axis of the drawer beneath therearwardly extending part of the follower. Other changes will of coursesuggest themselves to those skilled in the art.

It is intended that the patent shall cover, by summarization in theappended claims, whatever features of patentable novelty reside in theinvention.

What is claimed is:

1. A drawer for filing, storage or the like having a bottom portion ofmagnetic metal; a rack integrally formed in said bottom portion, saidrack extending axially of said bottom portion from a point near one endthereof to a point near the other end thereof; a removable followercooperating with said drawer, said follower having an upwardly extendingpart backing the contents of the drawer, a rearwardly extending partholding the upwardly extending part in generally upright position, and adownwardly extending projection at the rear end of the rearwardlyextending part for coacting with said rack; and, fixed to the rearwardlyextending part of the follower near the forward end thereof, atransversely extending magnet of the horse-shoe type spanning thefollower from a point near one side thereof to a point near the otherside thereof, said magnet having a cut-away area where it overlies therack in the bottom portion of the drawer and, on opposite sides of saidcut-away area, flat areas seating on said bottom portion below the levelof said downwardly extending projection in such manner as to keep saiddownwardly extending projection from making contact with the rack untilextraneous forces dislodge the magnet.

2. A metal drawer for tiling, storage or the like having side, end andbottom portions of magnetic metal; a series of transversely extendingserrations forming an integral rack in said bottom portion, said rackextending axially of the bottom portion of the drawer from a point nearone end thereof to a point near the other end thereof; a metal followercooperating with said drawer, said follower having an upwardly extendingpart backing the contents of the drawer, a rearwardly extending partholding the upwardly extending part in generally upright position, and adownwardly extending projection at the rear end of the rearwardlyextending part for coacting with said rack; and, fixed to the rearwardlyextending part of the follower near the forward end thereof but belowthe level of such forward end, a transversely extending magnet of thehorse-shoe type spanning the follower from a point near one side thereofto a point near the other side thereof, said magnet having cut-awayportions where it overlies the axially extending rack in the bottomportion of the drawer and, on opposite sides of said cut-away portions,two like sections seating on and adapted to grip the bottom portion ofthe drawer below the level of said downwardly extending projection insuch manner as to keep said downwardly extending projection from makingContact with the rack until extraneous forces dislodge the magnet.

3. A drawer for filing, storage or the like having a bottom portion ofmagnetic material, a rack integrally formed in said bottom portion, saidrack extending axially of said bottom portion from a point near one endthereof to a point near the other end thereof, a removable followercooperating with said drawer, said follower having an upwardly extendingpart backing the contents of the drawer, a rearwardly extending partholding the upwardly extending part in generally upright position and adownwardly extending projection at the rear end of the rearwardlyextending part for coacting with said rack, and xed to the rearwardlyextending part of the follower near the forward end thereof, magneticmeans spanning the follower from a point near one side thereof to apoint near the other side thereof, said magnetic means being positionedon the follower on each side of the rack whereby the magnets do notextend over the rack and at areas of said magnetic means seating on saidbottom portion below the level of said downwardly extending projectionin such manner as to keep saidl downwardly extending projection frommaking contact with the rack until extraneous forces dislodge themagnets.

4. A metal drawer for ling, storage or the like having side, end andbottom portions of magnetic material, a series of transversely extendingserrations forming an integral rack in said bottom portion, said rackextending axially of the bottom portion of the drawer from a point nearone end thereof to a point near the other end thereof, a metal followercooperating with said drawer, said follower having an upwardly extendingpart backing the contents of the drawer, a rearwardly extending partholding the upwardly extending part in generally upright position, and adownwardly extending projection at the rear end of the rearwardlyextending part for coacting with said rack, and iixed to the rearwardlyextending part of the follower near the forward end thereof but belowthe level of said forward end a plurality of spaced aligned magnetsspanning the follower from a point near one side thereof to a point nearthe other side thereof, said magnets being spaced on the follower oneach side of the rack whereby the magnets do not extend over the rack,said magnets having portions thereof engaging and gripping the bottomportion vof the drawer below the level of said downwardly extendingprojection in such a manner as to keep said downwardly extendlngprojection from making contact with the rack untll extraneous forcesdislodge the magnets.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,160,104 Bodenstein Nov. 9, 1915 1,743,600 Cubberley Ian. 14, 19302,557,398 Teetor June 14, 1951

